Rangers 10-in-a-row

Had some time stuck indoors so thought I'd fire up FM20 in Gamepass... updated to August 2020 transfers. Starting to think it's too easy with Rangers, though much of it depends on how Celtic perform - over a few different saved games, I've noticed they are unpredictable and can either push on to an Elite level or, like in this game, can come unstuck against a resurgent Gers!

I threw my entire budget at trying to secure Ryan Fraser and Jordon Ibe on free transfers and was delighted/surprised to secure them both amid tough competition! They really took us to the level required to overcome Celtic in that all important first season. Barisic, Katic, Goldson, Tavernier in defence and Aribo in midfield are all consistent enough to make it a good enough team to challenge. Turned out we had enough to win it, losing our only game of the season on the last day! Celtic still pushed us all the way but I knew we had foundations to push on, it would now be a matter of managing the incomings/outgoings of the squad to maintain consistency.

With Champions League confirmed and our players in high demand due to consistently great performances, I made sure to be as stubborn as possible when selling players - holding out for outrageous sums - clearing any driftwood and aiming to bring in young superstars of the future. Selling Tavernier (Villa) and Barisic (Napoli) for a combined £64m set the ball rolling and allowed me to snap up Calvin Stengs and Lovro Majer on deadline day, having already secured loan signings of Benjamin Henrichs and Rayan Ait-Nouri, all bases were covered and the team had been taken to another level. I picked up some Scottish talent in the shape of Stevie Mallan, Allan Campbell and Aaron Hickey - Mallan had been a top performer in the league and went from strength to strength as a squad player. Hickey has since had interest from Man Utd but has signed on a long-term contract.

We were walking the league by January so when offers came in I felt confident we could offload without disturbing our rhythm - Liverpool agreed to buy Ryan Fraser for £40m and I still had the likes of Ryan Kent on the books who is more than adequate AML in Scotland, so selling was a no-brainer. In came two highly regarded prospects on winter deadline day in Belgian Marco Kana and Brazilian wonderkid Kaio Jorge... another level achieved. Morelos was still with us and scored 43 goals in all competitions, winning the Golden Boot and the status of God in Govan.

Having finished 3rd in our CL group which included Real, Bayern & Lyon we succumbed to Valencia in the second knockout stage of the Europa League... amazingly, Kilmarnock would reach the Semi-Finals that year, beating Valencia in the QF! Killie went one better the following season reaching the inaugural Euro Cup II final... madness.

Again, Celtic pushed us all the way and the title came in the last two games. A quiet summer compared to the previous years' bonanza - Henrichs signed on permanently after a wonderful season at right-back - no such luck with Ait-Nouri as Angers refused to sell their man for anything less than £30m+ so turned our attention to Josh Tymon who was available for nearer £12m and he's been great, since earning a call-up to the England squad, though has yet to be capped.

A bitter blow in the winter of 21/22 as Lovro Majer demanded to leave and with a pesky £24m release clause, Atletico Madrid, after weeks of negotiations, eventually activated and took one of our brightest talents and for an absolute bargain! However, as is so often the case and despite my warnings, the grass is not always greener and Majer's career has since stalled and he finds himself playing for Rennes (£36m)... interestingly, there hasn't been a single player who has left our squad who has gone on to replicate their levels elsewhere. Telling.

The league has very much become a formality and we are currently on an unbeating run of 83 games... the challenge is still to reach 10-in-a-row but we will also look for better success in Europe as we have yet to reach beyond the 1st knockout stage of the CL and the 2nd in the Europa.

As we move into season five, only club captain Ross McCrorie, Ryan Kent and young breakthrough talent Josh McPake remain from the original squad. I put my faith in young Polish GK Majecki - he's done reasonably well but almost forced himself out to join Wigan(!) when he was my first-choice... I stuck to my guns and rejected the transfer though it could be a position I look to strengthen in the coming windows. I've taken something of a gamble this season by blowing 90% of our budget on two exciting prospects in (newgen) Chardonie Kabeya and former Atalanta starlet Davide Bettella for a combined £55m... in the hope that they can provide the spark needed to reach the latter stages of europe...